Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Matt Everett: Chapter 3

This chapter talks about three early perspectives on organizations that were not written with a focus on communication. These three theories had a more business approach to them. The first one is classical management which is represented by a collection of theories that share the underlying metaphor of organizations modeled after efficient machines. The second theory is scientific management which is based on the assumption that management is a true science resting on clearly defined laws, rules, and principals. It is designed to improve organizational efficiency and has a hierarchical structure of command. The basic assumptions of scientific management is that managers think while workers work and that humans only function as components of a machine. The third theory is the human relations approach which emphasized the interpersonal and social needs of individuals and marketed a clean break from earlier points of view. This approach is from the work of Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, and Chester Bernard.
It is amazing how much management has evolved over the years but we still face some of the same issues in today’s workplace. I had a job in San Diego where we would sell lead service providers to car dealerships. I was very good at it but I could not take the abuse from the management. Every day the managers would threaten our jobs if we did not make a sale. Even though I made sales and won employee of the month numerous times, it still was never good enough to the managers. They looked at the sales team as a machine and they just sat there and criticized everyone. It just shows me how many managers out there are truly underdeveloped and should not take on that kind of role without being properly educated about what a manager is supposed to do.

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